Taking Lessons from Silent Spring: Using Environmental Literature for Climate Change

Craig Meyer

doi:10.3390/literature1010002

Abstract

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) created a new genre termed “science nonfiction literature.” This genre blended environmental science and narrative while ushering in a new era of awareness and interest for both. With the contemporary climate crisis becoming more dire, this article returns to Carson’s work for insight into ways to engage deniers of climate change and methods to propel action. Further, it investigates and evaluates the writing within Silent Spring by considering its past in our present. Using the corporate reception of Carson’s book as reference, this article also examines ways climate change opponents create misunderstandings and inappropriately deceive and misdirect the public. Through this analysis, connections are made that connect literature, science, and public engagement, which can engender a broader, more comprehensive awareness of the importance of environmental literature as a medium for climate awareness progress.

Highlights

In 1958, Olga Owens Huckins wrote a letter to the Boston Herald, which described recent aerial sprayings of DDT near her home; she writes, The “harmless” shower-bath killed seven of our lovely songbirds outright
Courage of Rachel Carson”, pp. 135–36). She wrote another letter to her friend Rachel Carson desperately informing her of the event and the dangers of pesticides
Huckins asked Carson if she could write something about chemical spraying and its harm on wildlife

Summary

Introduction

In 1958, Olga Owens Huckins wrote a letter to the Boston Herald, which described recent aerial sprayings of DDT near her home; she writes, The “harmless” shower-bath killed seven of our lovely songbirds outright. Carson’s work focuses on chemicals and pesticides, many readers can connect and recognize the larger meaning of how humans interact and even misuse and abuse the environment With this -new genre, Carson sought to awaken governments, companies, and people who blindly believed nothing was happening to damage the world that we live in. The realization becomes clear: the human race will either begin to right the wrongs we have done to the planet, or we will continue to make haphazard, feeble, and inadequate attempts to do so, which will and slowly make the planet inhospitable for life—human life Books such as Carson’s, that is, well researched and narrative driven, offer a way to communicate effectively to the public in order to drive meaningful action on the climate crisis

A Literary Genre for Its Time

The Use of Fear

The End Folly

Taking Lessons and Hopeful Conclusions